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LLANELLY INTERMEDIATEI AND…

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AN ACCIDENT AT PENCOED COLLIERY.

. TINPLATERS IN GLASGOW. I

THE JENNINGS' MEMORIALI .FUND.

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A FIRE IN ANDREW STREET. I

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LLANELLY TEMPERANCEI .CHOIR.

MR. TENNYSON SMITH 1AND HIS…

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MR. TENNYSON SMITH 1 AND HIS METHODS. 0 I A REPLY TO MR. JOHN WILLIAMS' LETTER. I TO THE EDITOR. SIR,-I have read in your last week's issue the letter from Mr. John H. Williams in which he constitutes himself the champion of the so- called Temperance Party," and gives vent to some hum-drum and played-out arguments of the Prohibition Party. Obviously, it is quite impossible for me to open up this whole ques- tion in your columns. It would be an easy matter to show the absurdity and incorrectness of Mr. Williams' arguments and deductions But ass these accusations can only be refuted. by hard facts and statistics (which I have no time to look up at present), 1 have requested the assistant secretary of the County Brewers' Society-who is used to dealing with these questions—to make a short reply to Mr. Williams' letter, which I trust, Sir, you will be good enough to publish. It is useless to take up your space with clap- trap quotations about War between heaven and hell," (places of which we know absolutely nothing) or to take up the Tennyson Smith style of playing to the gallery by sentimental and harrowing pictures of the effects of over- indulgence in drink (or food). Such methods do not convince any reasonable person, and only disgust the temperate man. Mr. Williams has adopted the well worn tactics of professional teetotalers ir. suppressing important words in my letter, and suggesting false ones to make them suit his arugments, e.g., I referred.to the medical opinion concerning the moderate use of alcohol, whereas Mr. Williams suggests that Ilused the word indiscriminate use of alcohol. I can only refer Mr. Williams to a shilling diction- ary to satisfy himself that these words are not synonymous. As to his language anent the filthy offspring of the trade" I am afraid he must go to Billingsgate Fish Market to find its equal. Such dodges are not arguments, and show the utter weakness of the Teetotal party. I am, Sir, yours, etc., BASIL WM. VALENTIN. MR. P. C. MORGAN INTERVENING. TO THE EDITOR. SIR,-As one interested in the question between your correspondents, Mr. Valentin and Mr. Williams, I notice that the recent letter of the latter seems to confuse temperance and abstinence, and insinuates that the trade does not desire temperance, though he expressly quotes from the pamphlet of a brewer written in the cause of temperance. Mr. Williams quotes the ipse dixit of several individuals and newspapers on drink and its consequences, and it would not be difficult to quote a like number on the other side if any good purpose were to be served by so doing. State- ments of the kind without due evidence are not proof. If prohibition obtained in this country, it is generally admitted that between two and three million people engaged in the various branches of the industry would have to seek some other means of livelihood, and the revenue to be re- placed by some other form of taxation would be not 27 millions only, but, on the basis of last year, as much as 35 millions. Mr. Williams founds an argument on another ipse dixit of certain judges to the effect that two-thirds of the crime of the country is the outcome of drinking, and he is simple enough to accept this unproven assertion, and to state that consequently two- thirds of the total cost of keeping the whole legal paraphernalia-equal, he says, to 100 millions a year-has to be set against the comparatively insignificant sum collected through the trade. The mere statement to any thoughful person is sufficient, without any argument, to show its utter absurdity, and I need not labour the point. I would only ask Mr. Williams to favour your readers with his authority for stating that the cost of the whole legal paraphernalia" is £ 150.000,000 a year or nearly £ 4 per head of population Has he accidentally added a cypher to this ? Alcohol, says Mr. Williams, is a poison. The assertion, while being strictly accurate, is, however, misleading, and is used by the writer in the present instance in order to mislead his readers. What Mr. Williams refers to is only to:be obtained of the chemist, and is never used as a beverage. When reduced by the addition of water in sufficient quantity, the mixture becomes a wholesome beverage (vide Truth about Alcohol" by the abstaining physician, Dr. Norman Kerr). Even the late Sir B. W. Richardson, the highest teetotal authority, admitted before a Parliamentary Committee on intemperance that in his opinion a person might safely take. and not be injured at all by it, 11 ounces of alcohol per day. This would equal two pretty stiff glasses of grog or half a pint of good port or sherry each day. He further taid in reference to the glass of beer taken by people with their meals, that he candidly thought it would do them no harm. So much for Mr. Williams's poison." I will only deal with one more assertion in Mr. Williams' letter, namely, that the convic- tions for drunkenness in Cardiff show an actual decrease now as compared with the convictions before the introduction of the Sunday Closing Act. He offers to substantiate his assertion if any one doubts it. If the three years ended September 29th, 1881, be taken it will be found that the number of persons proceeded against for drunkenness in Cardiff averaged 595 annually. For the three years ended December 31st, 1895, the number is 1415, equal to an actual increase of nearly 140 per cent. But if I the population is taken into account the rela- tive increase still stands as high as about per cent. My authority is the "Judicial Statistics" and I have taken in each case the average of the last three years available without any other kind of selection. What are Mr. Willi,.in,is' figures and authority P Your obedient servant, PERCY C. MORGAN. 1, Victoria Street, London. S. W. I 26th April, 1897.

A PRESENTATION TO P.C. MORGAN,LLANGENNECH.

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